The first goal of the Flow of Experiences SIG is develop a conceptual standard for the import and export of sequences, hierarchies, and networks of information. Andrius Kulikauskas, convener of the SIG, and Director of the Minciu Sodas laboratory, thinks that we will then be able to use many different kinds of software for organizing notes, both at home and at work. We will not have to worry that our notes may get trapped if software gets discontinued, as happened with several leading products. The best products will generate revenues and satisfy challenges that will fuel their maturation. The standard should lead to suites of tools for thinking, as well as new user interfaces working directly on the standard. These interfaces will let us concentrate on organizing thoughts rather than documents.
The Flow of Experiences SIG also has the goal of developing a strategic picture for usage of the standard. According to Andrius Kulikauskas, experiences like to travel together in sequences, trees, and webs. The standard will make it easy to assemble and send epackages that bundle together experiences. These may typically be sent as gifts or care packages. A grandmother will be able to link together photos, letters, songs and even cash in the way she feels best generates the emotion that she would like to convey. Thanks to the standard, a child will be able to receive the structure of the bundle in a myriad of ways, not only the Web, but even regular mail, and then retrieve the linked parts at his or her leisure based on bandwidth available.
Andrius Kulikauskas expects Infrared to play a favored role in receiving epackages. Infrared transfer is often a social act where one person walks up to another to make the exchange. This social act is very much like a kiss, which we may take to be friendly, cordial, motherly, perky, romantic... It all depends on the circumstances of the kiss - or irdakiss. Next Christmas, an irdakiss may be the way of choice for receiving an epackage.
Information on the Minciu Sodas laboratory's work on the new standard may be found at http://www.ms.lt/irda.html